Psychology 1000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: Parenting, Neurotransmitter, Limbic System

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Dr.Mike

Document Summary

Motivation is a process that influences the direction, persistence, and vigour of goal-directed behaviour. Darwin"s theory of evolution inspired early psychological views, that instincts motivate much of our behaviour. An instinct is an inherited predisposition to behave in a specific and predictable way when exposed to a particular stimulus. Walter cannon proposed the concept of homeostasis, a state of internal physiological equilibrium that the body strives to maintain. (homeostasis can also involve learned behaviour) According to clark hull"s influential drive theory of motivation, physiological disruptions to homeostasis produce drives, states of internal tension that motivate an organism to behave in ways that reduce this tension. Hull a prominent learning theorist, proposed that reducing drives is the ultimate goal of motivated behaviour. Whereas drives are viewed as internal factors that push organisms into action, incentives represents environmental stimuli that pull an organism toward a goal. Clark hull argued that all reinforcement involves some kind of biological drive reduction.